Honestly, you are both intelligent and both have valid points and his comments do have substance.
For example, I have 14TB of KONTAKT libraries, do you suggest I get a boot drive that is 16TB nvme? That would be ridiculous, a 16TB nvme data sure...This is my point, the moment any of us ambiguously assume that their system is the benchmark of everyone, or what we read online or what an A.I. says is the only way, it is a recipe for failure. I store them on 2x 8TB 7500RPM SATA HDD's. A 16TB nvme is a trite expensive for me at the moment.
The reasons each of us do something is why?? - for our own reasons. To crap on someone because they do something differently means only one thing, they are not better or worse, only different.

There is no single way to do anything and never has been. The options might be confined to less choices, but there is never one way in anything we do. And crapping on someone because their opinion is different to yours is not a good look.

 

That makes no sense at all.. The sizes of your data drives should equal what you need to store what ever it is you need to store (without running the drive(s) at capacity). The amount of data storage you need at hand has no appreciable bearing on the size of your physical system disk. Keeping stuff separate is the crux of the biscuit here. Theoretically, the size of your system drive shouldn't need to be much greater than the size of the OS - which would be fine if you never intended on running anything else other than the OS for the life of the system (unrealistic). There are page files if you use them that for performance reasons should run on the system drive which takes up allocated space. There are installed program executables that belong there as well (some separate these onto their own physical volume). Which is why I recommend that you allow for such things on that physical drive. However at the MOST with all the stuff I run on systems I have never had the need to go past 2TB for a system drive. Some may need more than 2TB, some may need less. You want to allow some overhead (open space) as well and not run the disc at capacity which is also just good common sense. However if you clutter the system disc with huge data sets you will run out of space quickly for stuff that belongs there. This is becoming redundant - do what y'all want, I'm done here...

 

Which was my entire point. I install all data on separate drives that is not reliant on the O/S. Even then with a smaller drive, you can use junction points if needed. On any dedicated Active directory server setup with roaming profiles, more often than not, the network users documents and personal files reside on a file server not on their local boot drive and for a good reason and not on any FSMO server either. I have never seen the point of having data that is not important for the O/S to reside on the same drive.

The only space fillers are in Common files/VST3 which could likely be moved with a junction point, but like Programdata files, it pays to be careful doing it. If large data is elsewhere, there is no need to

 

True! But then you most likely have files in multiple places. The default system & the new location.

This would/could apply to (as an example):

• adding new libraries (especially with installers)
• internal program/plugins settings
• creation or tweaks for patches/soundsets

 

Hmm i have the urge to buy a new drive now reading this thread lol

 

Thank you, @Somnambulist, for the wise words and for trying to mediate.

In a democracy, debate is part of the process; it's always about finding the best argument.
"A democracy without debate isn't a democracy."

 

Do you actually run Omni 3? Because the 3rd party content I have installed (via the O3 installer) sets all the stuff up in the STEAM folder (on the drive and path I moved it to) under a directory called "Third Party Content". Settings are also in the STEAM folder under "settings library". The only things in Program Files on the SYSTEM DRIVE are the standalone exe's and the VST's/AAX files, etc... Small stuff on system drive large stuff on the big data storage drive. It seems that most things connected to O3 either created or installed, are stuffed into the STEAM folder wherever it resides. There are similar apps that can work like this - one other largely popular app that supports this model well is KONTAKT.

 

Last edited: Nov 26, 2025 at 9:04 AM

Why would you raise such a challenge???

Yes, I have Omnisphere 3 installed along with Omni 2 legacy libraries, extensions & Keyscape.

 

Bought a 2TB Samsung T7 external SSD on sale because of this thread.... lol

 

Well because all you had to do was take a quick look at the STEAM folder and you can plainly see that everything is pretty much self-contained within that folder.